Trick-or-Treat!!!!

Our little ballerina. . .

. . . and the cutest cow ever!!

It was a chilly evening for trick-or-treating, but Emma didn't feel the cold. Nope. Not even through those paper-thin leggings! She was ecstatic for her time going door-to-door. She was too young to remember dressing up as a baby. Everything was new. The night before Halloween, we snuggled in her bed and she asked me how to trick-or-treat. We talked about ringing the doorbell, taking the candy, saying thank you, and so on. There were times last night that were comical. At every door, she would gently set her bucket down, ring the doorbell, and then politely say "trick-or-treat". After she was given the candy, she would just stand there awkwardly. For the first several houses, we had to remind her to say thank you and then to leave. Toward the end of the first street, we met up with some neighbors who have little girls. The moms stayed home while the dads took the girls out. Emma and the girls had fun running around and Kevin and I got to know the dads a little bit. We laughed a lot and I decided we'll have to spend time with those families more often! I think we're really going to like our neighborhood!!

When we got home, Emma set her buckets down and began playing with a puzzle a neighbor had given her earlier in the day. I looked at Kevin and said, "What kid gets a whole bucket of candy and then comes home and plays with a puzzle??" Our kid, apparently! I had to pull her away from her puzzle and show her what I used to do as a kid. We dumped out all the candy and just enjoyed the sight of it all. Then, without me prompting her at all, she said, "OK!! Now I'm going to organize it all!" That's exactly what I used to do! Love that girl!! Because we don't usually keep candy in our house, Emma didn't recognize most of the goodies. Snickers, Reece's, 3 Musketeers, SweetTarts, Twix. None of them. Sometimes I think she's sheltered! I'm really OK that she doesn't know what every kind of candy is. I guess she does know what brigadeiros are, which are the most important candy/dessert in all of Brazil!! I had a small Twix last night, but I'm not really eating sugar, so nothing else was tempting. At the rate Emma eats candy, we'll still have this stash come next Halloween! That, or Kevin is going to have a few cavities!!

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday. I don't like the bad stuff associated with it (now that I'm an adult), but I love seeing all the fun little costumes. Really, though, it has more to do with the holiday overshadowing my birthday. It falls two days before Halloween, so I always felt like people were more excited about dressing up and then seemed to forget my birthday. I'm over it, but I think that's why I've never been a huge fan. So, I'm putting Emma to bed last night and her eyes were just sparkling as she said, "Mommy, this was the best day of my life. I love Halloween!!" I think she just loved being able to dress up as a ballerina and dance the afternoon away, but today, she's already talking about what she's going to be next year! Funny.